Proliferation of smart phones, and their subsequent use to perform high data-rate communication, has resulted in an exponential growth in the volume of data flowing over wireless networks. The increased volume of data flowing over the networks is taxing the service providers and the legacy network infrastructure responsible for ensuring the data reliably flows for most, if not all, users.
Furthermore, the introduction of a new generation of mobile wireless networks based upon fourth generation (4G) mobile wireless standards (e.g., “Long Term Evolution” or “LTE”) and associated communications infrastructure has indeed substantially increased the throughput capabilities of mobile wireless networks for users that subscribe to and use 4G services. Unfortunately, demand for data throughput is keeping pace with, if not exceeding, the data bandwidth increases provided by fourth generation mobile wireless data networks.
The data services over the Internet, including mobile IP multimedia services, continue to grow and evolve. The expansion of such data services and associated increased bandwidth demands presents complex challenges for network data service providers that are tasked with the responsibility of ensuring certain Quality of Service (QoS) levels for data streams delivered pursuant to the multimedia services as well as providing sufficient total bandwidth to handle high numbers of concurrent users of such services. However, the relative inflexibility of macrocell node-based radio interfaces in such networks presents a challenge to network service providers to provide cost-effective support for satisfying both: (1) individual requested QoS and (2) aggregate data throughput demands that vary substantially over time (e.g., over the course of a day).
For example, highways and streets in urban and suburban regions exhibit high in-vehicle smart phone utilization during routine workday commuting intervals. Other roadways exhibiting vast variation in both individual QoS and total throughput demands include ones at airports, shopping areas, and assorted events of broad public interest (concerts, college/professional sporting events, etc.). In the above-identified scenarios, it is also likely that there is a high degree of relative geospatial position coherence among vehicles traveling in a same direction, especially in heavy road traffic conditions wherein the vehicles likely travel at slow absolute speed (further enhancing relative positional coherence between two vehicles).